Intervallo IV: Timekilling Time
Intervallo IV: Timekilling Time is the fifth side story in Limbus Company, taking place between Canto VI: The Heartbreaking and Intervallo IV: Murder on the WARP Express.
It released alongside the event Timekilling Time on June 13th, 2024.
Summary
Following the chaos at the Wuthering Heights manor, the Sinners remain camped out in T Corp.'s Nest. Having begun to make a name for themselves, Don Quixote is delighted to find that they had been featured in the local newspaper for their conclusion of the mass kidnappings carried out by the Edgar Family. During, they are confronted by a T Corp. Collector who reveals they owe T Corp. a Time Tax of an entire 10,040,000,000 Ahn. No one understands either why they owe tax or what made the number so astronomically high, but eventually Vergilius intervenes and proposes going to T Corp.'s office to sort out the problem.
The Sinners are informed that the absurdly large tax was a result of Dante's Sapling of Light ability, "Pigritia", which had generated a large physical field of slowed time and disturbed the TT4 Protocol active at the Wuthering Heights manor. Whilst Vergilius and Faust have a meeting with the T Corp. staff in order to solve the problem, Meursault is approached by a talkative T Corp employee, who suggests they use the Temporal Scale Gallows of his invention in order to pay off their debt with "time" instead of money. Unfortunately, the machine errors out and does nothing.
When Faust and Vergilius return, they have a proposal for the Sinners. A Distortion known as the Time Ripper has been causing trouble by "killing" people's time, and if the group can help T Corp. solve the case, their debts will be forgiven. Besides the manager, only three Sinners are permitted to work on it, with Vergilius selecting Rodion, Ryōshū, and Hong Lu. The rest of the Sinners are locked in a prison cell until the case is resolved. Before they leave, Don Quixote provides the detective team with outfits and a book written by "Agatha", a famous Grade 1 Fixer from the Seven Association. As the four set off, they are accompanied by the same talkative T Corp. employee from earlier.
The Sinners quickly warm up to their new assistant as he guides them to the killer's third victim, a factory owner named Bumble. The Sinners originally struggle to question him due to how much time he has, which allows him to condense many hours into a day and move faster than those who have less time. He is ultimately able to communicate with the detectives through a recorder. He tells them about how he was attacked by the Ripper whilst making his way through the street. During the interview he scolds his destitute factory workers and demands the impossible from them, agitating Rodion. Ryōshū mentions how the culprit must have moved faster than Bumble in order to strike him and kill his time. The detectives reach the conclusion that the culprit must despise the rich and status quo of T Corp., while also having plenty of hours to spare. The group sets off again.
By questioning a Collector, they learn that the Yurodiviye are active in T Corp. and have been committing petty thefts whilst providing detective services to the poor. They soon encounter the Syndicate personally, when Hong Lu is killed by an explosion caused by a handful of Yurodiviye activists. The Sinners engage them in battle, although the Yurodiviye flee. Upon seeing Dante "turn back the clock" to revive Hong Lu, the assistant questions them about their ability, wondering what machinery makes such a thing possible and where all the time they're manipulating comes from.
When the Sinners and their assistant return from the scuffle, they find that the Collector from earlier had been attacked by the Ripper, her time now killed, leaving her literally frozen in time. As they discuss the scene, Dante senses the Distortion nearby, and Ryōshū and Hong Lu run off to pursue the Yurodiviye. After another combat, Ryōshū manages to capture the activist, who eventually gives up the location of their hideout. Rodya, Hong Lu, and Ryōshū confront the Captain of the Yurodiviye and engage him in battle. Upon defeating him, they question the nature of his inventions and whether he's responsible for the time murders, but he denies any complicity and insults the detectives for being amateurs. During the interrogation, Rodya mentions her personal rapport with Sonya, as well as her familiarity and distaste for the Yurodiviye, angering Captain, who recounts the way the Yurodiviye creed has spread through every Nest, and speaks of Sonya as "the Saint". Eventually, he asks if Rodya was really an old friend of Sonya's, and upon her saying yes, he gives the detectives advice on the case.
Outside, Rodya asks the T Corp. assistant why, despite having his duties as a T Corp. employee, he had been allowing the Yurodiviye of their district to run free instead of capturing them, wondering whether the group was so insignificant that they didn't prove to be a threat. The assistant claims that the opposite is true. He'd been wanting to see if Yurodiviye can change the world, and reveals that, in actuality, the group has managed to spread through the Nests and cause some real trouble. Rodya laments Sonya's goals coming to fruition while she remains stagnant and unchanged. She expresses determination to solve the murders and be the center of attention, berating Ryōshū and Hong Lu for joining the case for halfhearted reasons. She is then cut off by the appearance of another victim: the Yurodiviye Captain they'd been speaking to. The detectives pursue the Distortion once more, with the team splitting up in order to corner them.
Dante, Rodya, and their assistant end up face-to-face with the Ripper, with the other two elsewhere. Rodya's mental state spirals as the Time Ripper confirms they are not bound by the Yurodiviye. The Distortion claims that they are not the one killing time, but the citizens of T Corp are, justifying their actions by explaining they are merely reaping the dying and wasted hours to share amongst the poor. The Ripper deeply detests the higher-ups of T Corp. and how they have so much time to waste, whilst the poor only have 4-10 hours to make of their day. While the culprit flees, Rodion processes these views, and the dejected detectives make their way back to the frozen body of the Yurodiviye Captain. Ryōshū deduces that the Captain knew the Ripper due to the particular look in his eyes, and upon seeing the Captain’s Yurodiviye scarf torn in half, Rodion deduces the killer to be a former Yurodiviy who'd grown frustrated at the Syndicate's methods, as the Yurodiviye believes in the need to wait for the right moment to bring about change.
By questioning the activists once more, the group learns of a member who wanted to share the time of T Corp. equally amongst everyone, and that had quit after his brother's death. The band of detectives begins to lay down their clues. Ryōshū brings up that, while she knows her cigarettes take exactly four minutes to burn out, when checking the Clock Tower today, she noticed her cigarettes were seemingly burning in only two minutes. Rodion uses this to deduce that the Ripper slowed down the Clock Tower by two minutes in order to make everyone in the general area feel an extra sense of tedium, leaving them vulnerable to their attacks. Their assistant tells the team how they need evidence to make the arrest, so they have the duty of catching the killer in the act. When Rodya expresses concern over the Ripper potentially taking away their time, the assistant reveals that it is impossible for the Ripper to rip away the Sinners' time, due to their time being bound to Dante's, which is why his gallows did not work on Meursault earlier.
The team devises a plan to capture the Ripper by having Hong Lu act as bait. Beforehand, the detectives return to the T Corp. office to free the rest of the Sinners and head to the Clock Tower to set the trap. At the Clock Tower, the Time Ripper appears and attacks Hong Lu, and as expected, the attack is ineffective. The waiting Sinners ambush the Ripper and defeat him in battle. A door to the Ripper's fathoms opens and the Sinners traverse through his memories.
The fathoms reveal the Ripper was a former member of Yurodiviye who had aspirations of being an inventor. One day, his brother lent him most of his time to allow him to take a certification, but before the Ripper could return his brother the borrowed time, the brother was hit by a car he was too slowed-down to avoid. His death caused the Ripper to spiral into despair and distort. The Distortion is also revealed to be made of several different people that had been absorbed into the first Ripper. The Sinners finally defeat the Time Ripper, and then head back to the office as the LCA handles the Distortion.
At the office, a reporter requests an interview with Dante, Rodion, Ryōshū and Hong Lu in order to get an inside scoop on the case. Subsequently, the reporter takes their photo, which Don Quixote photobombs. Afterwards it is revealed that the T Corp. assistant the group had been working with was actually the corporation's Executive Director. After revealing his name to be Herbert, he forwards a request to buy all of the Monoliths in Limbus Company's possession and reveals to Dante how they renewed his wish he'd once given up on. He mentions stars, and the connection between change and time, claiming that the only true way to stop changes and suffering is to stop time.
Back on the bus, Rodya continues to ruminate on the case, having been greatly agitated by she had learned about herself and Sonya. Dante tries to distract her by asking where they are headed next. With this, Vergilius reveals they are going onto a WARP train, much to everyone's horror.
Enemies
Trivia
- The 'Agatha' who wrote the book Records of Investigation: Solutions to the Thirteen Problems, which Don Quixote gives to the detective trio and Hong Lu reads throughout the Intervallo, is a reference to the author Agatha Christie who is famous for her many popular detective mystery novels.
- The title of the book itself references The Thirteen Problems, one of her works.
- Several of the stage titles in this Intervallo are references to various Sherlock Holmes detective stories by Arthur Conan Doyle.
- 6.5-1: A Scandal in Time references A Scandal in Bohemia.
- 6.5-4: The Adventure of the Three Detectives references The Adventure of the Three Students.
- 6.5-6: The White-scarved League references The Red-Headed League.
- 6.5-9: The Dying Detective references The Adventure of the Dying Detective.
- 6.5-14: The Clock Tower of Fear references The Valley of Fear.
- During the story episodes of this Intervallo, various characters feature differing text speeds to represent how much time they have. This is a first for Limbus Company.
- During the initial release of the Intervallo, Herbert's name was Hubert (휴버트). It was revealed by Project Moon director Kim Ji-hoon in the Latter Half of 2025 Roadmap Livestream that his name was always intended to be Herbert, but was written incorrectly in the English translation due to miscommunication among staff. The error was rectified with the release of Timekilling Time BokGak on July 31st, 2025.
Story Chapters
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| Detour Tales | Intervallos | ||
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